THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506030113
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: Beth Barber
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Here we are, less than a month from the school year's end, from Superintendent Faucette's departure, from the end of a fiscal year that's been a budget doozy.
Here we are, no more than a month, hopefully less, from the appointment of an interim school superintendent and a search for a permanent suc-ces-sor.
It's a time when school leadership and finances are uncertain. That's a time, wouldn't you think, to stop and take stock as much as possible: to sort out what needs doing now and what could better be put on hold pending the changes due at the top in school ad-min-is-tra-tion.
That means putting the selection of an interim superintendent and the proc-ess for selecting a permanent superintendent at the top of the School Board's agenda. A certain amount of predictable jockeying for positions is already going on among the staff Dr. Faucette will leave behind. Board members need to stay informed. They may need to step in now and again.
One step is naming an interim superintendent quickly and giving him all possible authority to shepherd the schools through these next few difficult weeks of transition.
Another step is deciding on a proc-ess for searching out a new superintendent. The superintendent's selection is ultimately the School Board's. But the more open and inclusive the search and selection, the better.
Candidates abound, near and far. ``Headhunters'' can be helpful, but there's a world of help available outside the rather small world of the superintendent-search firms that brought Dr. Faucette to Virginia Beach four years ago and introduced him just recently to Geor-gia.
Candidates for a community committee to participate in the search and selection proc-ess abound, too. But there's a plus to including teachers, parents, taxpayers - all the parties interested in good, effective schools - in the process of preserving the successful programs and policies and identifying the failures of the recent past: It might help form a consensus on a future course for schools.
What are the top five qualifications, for instance, for a new superintendent? Or, conversely, what are the top five flaws to avoid?
What are the top five ways to assess the candidates? Or the five worst ways to make the final choice?
I've invited several people formerly involved with the school system to respond for publication in the next week or so. If you, too, would like to respond, please do. by CNB